CONGENITAL SHORT ESOPHAGUS: Review of Literature and Eight Original Cases, Including One Autopsy Report

ALTHOUGH the short esophagus is no longer considered a rarity, its description in autopsy material is infrequent. In presenting the autopsy findings of a case in 1836, Bright,¹ although he did not use the term, described a case of thoracic stomach, with the esophagogastric junction situated at the level of the fourth thoracic vertebra. Kelly² summarized nine clinical cases in 1931 under the heading "congenital shortening of the esophagus." Since Morison³ added a case found at autopsy in 1930 four additional cases have been presented by Jacob, Tweedie and Negus,⁴ French⁵ and Rennie, Land and Scott Park.⁶ During this period clinical reviews appeared by Clerf and Manges,⁷ Monkhouse and Montgomery,⁸ Dunhill,⁹ Chamberlin,¹⁰ Harrington,¹¹ Polley,¹² Johnstone,¹³ Dick and Hurst,¹⁴ Smithers,¹⁵ Alison,¹⁶ Feldman¹⁷ and Rennie and others.⁶

Shortness of the esophagus has long been